Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2000 02:15:17 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <200002190715.CAA26130@mattababy.mit.edu>
From: belmonte@mit.edu (Matthew Belmonte)
To: CapuanoHR8@aol.com
Subject: reform deportation requirements in the Immigration Act of 1996

Dear Representative Capuano

An op-ed piece in today's New York Times
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/lewis/021900lewi.html) describes
several poignant cases in which immigrants who have been convicted of crimes,
even minor ones long past, are being detained and deported under the rigid
Immigration Act of 1996.  One case cited in the article hits particularly close
to home in Boston, where reformed gang member Amando Baptiste has been
instrumental in a program that has reduced gang violence from dozens of
shootings in 1998 to near zero now.  Despite having a clean record recently,
despite his dedication to non-violence and despite having the support of his
church and his community, Mr Baptiste is now in jail and facing deportation for
his past trouble with the law.

The Immigration Act fails to recognise that people can be reformed, and that
there are cases of ex-convicts who offer great service to society.  Even the
Immigration and Naturalization Service agrees that change is needed: the
article quotes INS spokesman Bill Strassburger as asserting "We feel there
needs to be more discretion available to immigration judges when they review
cases. Waivers -- based on the crime committed, how long they've been here,
what kind of behavior they've had since, hardship on families -- can't be
considered now."  I hope that you will act to initiate and support
discretionary reform of the Immigration Act of 1996.